Three People Seen In Reverse

There can be
purity and simplicity in a play about a woman, her husband and her lover. Given
the opportunity to breathe on an intimate studio theater stage, Harold Pinter’s
Betrayal has emotional gravity to
draw in an audience. Soulstice Theatre stages this gravity quite well in its
current production.

Amy Hansmann
plays Emma. She’s pursuing happiness between two different people who don’t
quite match with her the way she needs them to. So she’s very alone with both
of the men she’s onstage with. Of the three characters, she probably says what
she means the least often. Hansmann plays Emma’s dishonesty with a heart and
compassion that is crushingly sympathetic.

In the hands of
Andrew Riebau, Emma’s lover Jerry is the most aggressively passionate character
in the trio. We don’t notice this at first, of course. The events of the play
happen in reverse. As the play opens we see him quite stoic and motionless and
seemingly emotionless. At the end of the play he’s just gotten her alone for
what may be the first time ever and the romantic passion is poetic and
explosive. It’s quite a journey in reverse. Seen here, Riebau is a great
nonverbal storyteller with casual gestures, expressions and intonations.

Finally, there
is Joe Krapf in the role of Emma’s husband Robert. Krapf plays Robert as a
brutally concise intellectual who seems to be playing some strange, abstract
game of chess throughout the entire play. The character is not without his
humanity and it’s particularly fun seeing Krapf bring that out of the character
by degrees and subtle shades. It’s not an easy thing for any actor to portray a
character this seemingly inhuman. Krapf plays it quite well.